Medea kneels before Aegeus in the posture of a suppliant.
But I beg you by your beard
[710]
and by your knees and I make myself your suppliant: have pity, have pity on an unfortunate woman, and do not allow me to be cast into exile without a friend, but receive me into your land and your house as a suppliant. If you do so, may your longing for children
[715]
be brought to fulfillment by the gods, and may you yourself die happy! You do not know what a lucky find you have made in me. I will put an end to your childlessness and cause you to beget children, for I know the medicines to do it.

Aegeus
Dear woman, for many reasons
[720]
I am eager to grant you this favor, first, for the sake of the gods, then for the children you promise I will beget. For on that score I am utterly undone. But here is how matters stand with me. If you come to my country, I shall in justice try to act as your protector.
[725]
This much, however, I tell you in advance: I will not consent to take you from this land. But if you manage by yourself to come to my house, you may stay there in safety, and I will never give you up to anyone. You must go on your own, then, from this land.
[730]
I wish to be blameless in the eyes of my hosts as well.

Euripides. Euripides, with an English translation by David Kovacs. Cambridge. Harvard University Press. forthcoming.

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